Kids May Inherit Parents' Joy

Kids with a sunny disposition may have inherited that attitude from happy parents, a scientist hypothesizes based on research showing that personal experiences can change the traits parents pass on to their kids. This could mean that parents’ pre-conception mental state influences the child, he contends. If that proves true, people may be able to pass on the joy they accumulate in life, LiveScience writes.

While life events still play an instrumental role in people’s moods, related studies have shown that certain personality-related genes predispose children to be happy. “There is a heritable component of happiness which can be entirely explained by genetic architecture of personality,” says a psychologist who led one of those studies. (More happiness stories.)